People residing on the Border
Since the attacks on Lay Kay Kaw and the subsequent running and hiding by its population and people in the surrounding areas, many of you have come and donated clothing and money.
Our charity sale in the Gallery has not been very successful. Our Cake and Mohinga sale did generate money and together with donated books we sold well, we have been able to donate to several groups assisting people on the border.
Of course, our donation boxes will stay open for more donations and more events are likely to be organized.
Earlier we gave 10,000 baht to one group, 9,000 baht to another group and 8,000 baht to a third group. As of April 1 there is another 12,500 baht in our boxes which we will donate to one of the groups.
Water Filters and Lunch Boxes
In times of emergency priorities change. With people arriving at the border with their bare necessities or less, the first thing people need is food and water. In the local communities who welcomed people there has been an immediate willingness to provide this.
In Thai villages people combined resources and effort and cooked for hundreds, for thousands. Packed in lunch boxes, these meals were then distributed to the affected people. Bottles with drinking water accompanied the food.
Obviously this would leave used boxes and bottles. As people could not discard this in an organized way, in some spots people could be seen camping near the waste their residing accumulated.
Some groups decided that it would be better that people received dry food and mobile kitchens so they could make their own food. This would give people more control and would generate less waste. Several community kitchens have been organized in this way.
Other groups looked for lunch boxes that were less harmful and contacted Borderline to help procure these boxes. We managed to get 30,000 boxes we already distributed. A second batch of 30,000 boxes is now waiting for further distribution.
Safe Water for Every Child Myanmar, an organization from Singapore, has been working with Wateroam distributing water filters in Karen State for some time and has been extra active since February 1, 2021. Friday April 8, 2022 they will come to Picture Book Hotel to demonstrate several water filters and share information on clean drinking water.
Water is essential for life, for many safe drinking water is hard to get. For many even water is getting scarcer. Perhaps something to think about when loading a water gun during Tingyan and Songkran.